Fund To Help Fix Shopping Malls

The County Will Give Money To Commercial Property Owners To Renovate Strip Malls Along Main Roads.

June 23, 1994|By Mike Berry of The Sentinel Staff

SANFORD — Seminole County has set aside money to spruce up aging shopping centers and other eyesores.

County commissioners last week approved $250,000 for a redevelopment trust fund to improve vacant or deteriorating commercial property.

County officials said the program should increase property values, improve aesthetics and enhance the county's tax base.

Property owners can apply for county funds to offset the cost of permit and impact fees and to make right-of-way and other improvements. The maximum award is $10,000 per project.

A chief aim of the program is to rejuvenate older strip shopping centers along U.S. Highway 17-92 that are largely empty or in disrepair - especially between State Road 434 and the Orange County border.

Some properties are hard to rent while others are just ''plain out dilapidated,'' said Tony VanDerworp, the county's planning director.

Another goal is to landscape highway medians.

Despite U.S. 17-92's high visibility, county commissioners said they don't want to devote the program to it.

''I would not want it perceived to be a 17-92 effort only because I think there are other roads that deserve attention,'' Commissioner Pat Warren said.

To be eligible for the money, a project must exist in an area where more than one isolated building or shopping center shows signs of decline and high vacancy rates.

The project must also lie along a major road, so surrounding properties enjoy the benefits of the improvements, county officials said. It can be either inside or outside city limits.